Since 1994, Rotary has taught me that leadership is not measured by the size of the title we hold, but by the depth of the people we lift.
Across my life in youth development, community service, athletics, the YMCA, and Rotary, one lesson keeps coming back: the best leaders do not create followers. They create more leaders. That is why the Rotary ideal of service is so powerful. It asks us to use our occupations, relationships, influence, and energy not for self-promotion, but for worthy enterprise. Leadership in Rotary is not a spotlight. It is a relay.
My mentor Ken Blanchard helped give language to that truth. In his book, The Servant Leader, servant leadership, he explains success is not simply what happens while we are in the room. Success is what continues after we leave it. That is successorship. A servant leader does not cling to the chair, the microphone, or the credit. A servant leader prepares the next person to carry the mission farther than we could carry it ourselves.
That is a Rotary challenge. Every club president, district chair, assistant governor, and committee leader should be asking: Who am I preparing? Who am I encouraging? Who will know how to lead when my season is over?
The Student Self Leadership work of the Blanchard Institute adds another important layer. Young people between the ages of 14-18 all over the world are taught that leadership begins with mindset and skillset. Mindset is openness: the attitudes and thoughts we bring to a challenge. Then they learn the five points of power: position, task, knowledge, relationship, and personal power. Skillset is action: setting goals, diagnosing what is needed, and matching ourselves with the right support and direction.
Rotarians need that same reminder. Too often we think power comes only from position. But in Rotary, some of the most influential people have no title at all. They have knowledge power because they know how things work. They have relationship power because people trust them. They have task power because they get things done. They have personal power because their character inspires others. Position may open the door, but service keeps it open.
A 28-year-old Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., speaking in Atlanta in 1957, challenged his listeners to prepare for a new age by doing their work with excellence. He reminded them that no role is too small when it is done with purpose. He also called for leaders who are courageous, intelligent, dedicated, calm, positive, restrained, and “in love with humanity” more than publicity.
That sounds like Rotary.
In this new age, our clubs need leaders who can dream boldly and listen humbly. Leaders who can challenge assumed constraints and still build consensus. Leaders who love justice more than recognition. Leaders who are willing to sweep the street, chair the committee, mentor the student, visit the club, write the check, make the call, and then step aside so someone else can grow.
Leadership is not leaving people impressed with us.
Leadership is leaving people better prepared to serve.
And when we do that — when we build successors, activate every point of power, and lead with the heart of a servant — we are ready for the new age of Rotary.
Michael Brunker
Rotary District 5340 Governor Elect 2027-2028
Rotary District 5340 Governor Elect 2027-2028